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2020 International Criminal Court judges election

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Six judges of the International Criminal Court were elected during the 19th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court held from 7 to 17 December 2020 in New York.[1] The judges were elected for terms of nine years and took office on 11 March 2021.

Background

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The judges elected at this session replaced six judges whose terms ended in 2021. Four of those judges had been elected in 2011 for full nine-year terms; the other two had been elected in separate elections in 2013 and in 2015 to replace two judges elected in 2011 who had resigned. The newly elected judges will serve for nine years until 2030.

The election was governed by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Its article 36(8)(a) states that "[t]he States Parties shall, in the selection of judges, take into account the need, within the membership of the Court, for:

  • (i) The representation of the principal legal systems of the world;
  • (ii) Equitable geographical representation; and
  • (iii) A fair representation of female and male judges."

Furthermore, article 36(3)(b) and 36(5) provide for two lists:

  • List A contains those judges that "[h]ave established competence in criminal law and procedure, and the necessary relevant experience, whether as judge, prosecutor, advocate or in other similar capacity, in criminal proceedings";
  • List B contains those who "[h]ave established competence in relevant areas of international law such as international humanitarian law and the law of human rights, and extensive experience in a professional legal capacity which is of relevance to the judicial work of the Court".

Each candidate has to belong to exactly one list. A minimum of nine judges elected from list A and five judges elected from list B is to be maintained on the court.

Further rules of election were adopted by a resolution of the Assembly of States Parties in 2004.[2]

Judges remaining in office

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The following judges were scheduled to remain in office beyond 2021:[3]

Judge Nationality   List A or B   Regional criteria   Gender
List A List B African Asian E. European GRULAG WEOG Female Male
Reine Alapini-Gansou  Benin X X X
Solomy Balungi Bossa  Uganda X X X
Antoine Kesia-Mbe Mindua  Democratic Republic of the Congo X X X
Tomoko Akane  Japan X X X
Chung Chang-ho  South Korea X X X
Piotr Hofmański  Poland X X X
Péter Kovács  Hungary X X X
Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza  Peru X X X
Rosario Salvatore Aitala  Italy X X X
Marc Pierre Perrin de Brichambaut  France X X X
Kimberly Prost  Canada X X X
Bertram Schmitt  Germany X X X
       
8 4 3 2 2 1 4 5 7

Nomination process

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The nomination period of judges for the 2020 election lasted from 6 January to 30 March 2020.[1] It was first extended to 30 April on an emergency basis due to the COVID-19 pandemic[4] and then extended once more on a regular basis because the required number of Asian and Eastern European candidates had not been nominated.[5] A second Eastern European candidate was nominated during this second extension period, but no further Asian candidates were nominated, and thus the number of Asian candidates remained below the required number. The following persons were nominated:[6]

Candidate Nationality   List A or B   Regional criteria   Gender
List A List B African Asian E. European GRULAG WEOG Female Male
Althea Violet Alexis-Windsor  Trinidad and Tobago X X X
Andrés Bernardo Barreto González  Colombia X X X
Ishaq Usman Bello  Nigeria X X X
Haykel Ben Mahfoudh  Tunisia X X X
Khosbayar Chagdaa  Mongolia X X X
Jasmina Ćosić Dedović  Bosnia and Herzegovina X X X
María del Socorro Flores Liera  Mexico X X X
Gberdao Gustave Kam [nl]  Burkina Faso X X X
Joanna Korner  United Kingdom X X X
Gocha Lordkipanidze  Georgia X X X
Laurence Massart [fr]  Belgium X X X
Prosper Milandou  Republic of the Congo X X X
Ariela Peralta Distéfano  Uruguay X X X
Íñigo Francisco Alberto Salvador Crespo  Ecuador X X X
Miatta Maria Samba  Sierra Leone X X X
Mônica Jacqueline Sifuentes  Brazil X X X
Viktor Panagiotis Tsilonis  Greece X X X
Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godínez  Costa Rica X X X
       
10 8 5 1 2 7 3 8 10

Minimum voting requirements

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Minimum voting requirements governed part of the election. This was to ensure that articles 36(5) and 36(8)(a) cited above were fulfilled. For this election, the following minimum voting requirements applied initially:[7]

Criterion Number of judges required Number of judges remaining in office Ex ante voting requirement Number of candidates Adjusted voting requirement Adjusted voting requirement equals ex ante?
Lists A or B
List A 9 8 1 10 1 Yes
List B 5 4 1 8 1 Yes
Regional criteria
African 3 3 0 5 0 Yes
Asian 3 2 1 1 0 No
Eastern European 3 2 1 2 1 Yes
Latin American and Caribbean 3 1 2 7 2 Yes
Western European and other 3 4 0 3 0 Yes
Gender criteria
Female 6 5 1 8 1 Yes
Male 6 7 0 10 0 Yes

Regarding the List A or B requirement, one vote had to be cast for a List A candidate and one for a List B candidate.

Regarding the regional criteria, three votes had to be cast for certain regional groups: one for an Eastern European candidate and two for Latin American or Caribbean candidates.

Regarding the gender criteria, one vote had to be cast for a female candidate.

Because only one Asian candidate had been nominated, the regional minimum voting requirement for Asian candidates was adjusted to zero before the election pursuant to paragraph 20 (b) of the resolution that governs the elections.[2][8]

The minimum voting requirements are updated after each ballot to account for the judges already elected. The regional and gender requirements are dropped either if they can no longer be (jointly) fulfilled, or if after four ballots not all seats are filled. The List A or B requirement remains active until a sufficient number of judges has been elected from each list.

Ballots

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The ballot results were as follows:[9]

Candidate Nationality 18 December 2020 21 December 2020 22 December 2020 23 December 2020
1st ballot 2nd ballot 3rd ballot 4th ballot 5th ballot 6th ballot 7th ballot 8th ballot
Valid votes cast 117 110 118 119 123 117 118 118
Two-thirds majority 78 74 79 80 82 78 79 79
Joanna Korner  United Kingdom 85 elected
Gocha Lordkipanidze  Georgia 72 76 elected
Miatta Maria Samba  Sierra Leone 62 57 83 elected
María del Socorro Flores Liera  Mexico 61 67 78 87 elected
Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godínez  Costa Rica 62 66 72 87 elected
Althea Violet Alexis-Windsor  Trinidad and Tobago 55 48 64 62 50 62 76 86
Haykel Ben Mahfoudh  Tunisia 42 39 48 42 40 38 42 32
Mônica Jacqueline Sifuentes  Brazil 36 33 49 33 16 14 withdrawn
Viktor Panagiotis Tsilonis  Greece 14 14 11 5 3 3 withdrawn
Laurence Massart [fr]  Belgium 32 33 32 22 12 withdrawn
Jasmina Ćosić Dedović  Bosnia and Herzegovina 49 40 13 9 2 withdrawn
Khosbayar Chagdaa  Mongolia 33 16 14 8 withdrawn
Íñigo Francisco Alberto Salvador Crespo  Ecuador 18 14 withdrawn
Andrés Bernardo Barreto González  Colombia 20 13 withdrawn
Ariela Peralta Distéfano  Uruguay 17 12 withdrawn
Gberdao Gustave Kam [nl]  Burkina Faso 19 7 withdrawn
Ishaq Usman Bello  Nigeria 12 5 withdrawn

withdrawn

Prosper Milandou  Republic of the Congo 7 3 withdrawn

The minimum voting requirements are imposed on the ballots cast, not on the results. Thus, there is no guarantee that a corresponding number of judges is elected. However, in this election this was the case:

Criterion Initial minimal voting requirement Corresponding number of judges elected?
List A 1 Yes, after 1st ballot
List B 1 Yes, after 2nd ballot
Eastern European 1 Yes, after 2nd ballot
Latin American and Caribbean 2 Yes, after 4th ballot
Female 1 Yes, after 1st ballot

Note that these are the initial minimum voting requirements before the first ballot but after adjustment based on the number of candidates. Without that adjustment, there would have been a minimum voting requirement to cast one vote for an Asian candidate; no Asian candidate was elected.

References

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  1. ^ a b "ICC-ASP/19/SP/01" (PDF). Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. 20 December 2019. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Resolution ICC-ASP/3/Res.6" (PDF). Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. 10 September 2004. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 April 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  3. ^ "Annex II – Composition of the Judges" (PDF). Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. 20 December 2019. p. 14. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  4. ^ "ICC-ASP/19/SP/20" (PDF). Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. 31 March 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  5. ^ "ICC-ASP/19/SP/30" (PDF). Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. 1 May 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  6. ^ "2020 Nominations - Election of six judges". Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. December 18, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  7. ^ "Annex II – Tables of minimum voting requirements" (PDF). Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. 20 December 2019. p. 13. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  8. ^ "ICC-ASP/19/SP/41" (PDF). Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. August 6, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
  9. ^ "2020 - Election of six judges - Results". Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute. December 23, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2024.